This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Criminal negligence charges filed in Lac-Mégantic train crash

The Montreal, Maine & Atlantic rail company, engineer Thomas Harding and two employees are facing charges in the July 6, 2013 crash of a runaway train.

Smoke rises from derailed railway cars that were carrying crude oil in downtown Lac-Mégantic, Que., July 6, 2013. Authorities filed criminal negligence charges against the rail company and others on Monday. (Paul Chiasson / THE CANADIAN PRESS file photo)

Thomas Harding is the train engineer who parked the 72-car train two hours before the disaster in Lac-Mégantic, Que. He and two other Montreal, Maine and Atlantic employees have been charged with criminal negligence in the 2013 derailment that killed 47 people. (JEREMIE STALL-PAQUET / La Presse file photo)

This photo provided by Surete du Quebec shows wrecked oil tankers and debris from a runaway train in Lac-Megantic. The lengthy police investigation into the cause of the crash has determined that Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway, the train’s engineer, Thomas Harding, and two MMA employees were responsible for the deaths and damage that occurred. Criminal negligence charges have been filed.
(Surete du Quebec / The Canadian Press file photo)

Saint-Agnes church is seen from Frontenac St. in the red zone of Lac-Mégantic, Que. On July 6, 2013, a train carrying crude oil jumped the tracks, caught fire and exploded, killing 47 people and destroying most of the eastern Quebec town's core. Criminal negligence charges were filed Monday against the rail company, the engineer and two rail employees. (Michel Huneault photo)

Lac-Mégantic's downtown core and Frontenac St. had to be excavated to remove contaminated soil and repair storm sewers after the MMA train derailment disaster in June 2013. Authorities filed criminal negligence charges Monday against MMA and several employees, saying they were responsible for the deaths and damage that occurred. (Chris So / Toronto Star file photo)

Workers change the white absorbent floating barriers attached to a yellow boom on the Chaudiere River near Lac-Mégantic, Que., after the deadly derailment of a train carrying crude oil in June 2013. Quebec authorities have filed criminal negligence charges against the rail company, the engineer and two employees tied to the crash that killed 47 people and caused extensive environmental damage. (Michel Huneault Photo)

MONTREAL—Those suspected of causing last summer’s train crash in Lac-Mégantic that resulted in the deaths of 47 people will appear in a local court Tuesday afternoon to face charges of criminal negligence.

The charges against the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic rail company and three of its employees come 10 months after a runaway train rolled toward the eastern Quebec town before jumping the tracks and bursting into flames shortly after midnight on July 6, 2013.

The employees include train engineer Thomas Harding, manager of train operations Jean Demaitre, and Richard Labrie, who reports have said was in charge of rail circulation at the time of the crash. Employees reported to Labrie following an earlier fire that broke out on the train.

Thomas Walsh, Harding’s lawyer, said he had written to Crown prosecutors offering to have Harding turn himself in if or when charges were laid.

Instead, he told the Star, Harding was approached by a phalanx of heavily armed officers like a scene in a Hollywood action movie. Harding was in his backyard in Farnham, Que., working on his boat with his son and a friend and all three were forced to lie on the ground while officers carried out the arrest.

Article Continued Below

“It was like they were a bunch of terrorists with their guns and everything,” Walsh said. “I didn’t expect it to happen like this . . . I guess they wanted to turn it into something a little more histrionic, so that’s what they did.”

It is unclear what role Demaitre and Labrie are alleged to have played in the incident. Walsh said he had not received any disclosure from prosecutors spelling out the specific allegations against any of the individuals or the precise role of the company in the criminal accusation.

“Maybe what they’re saying is that when you add up everybody it works out to criminal negligence. Or maybe they’re saying that each person was criminally negligent in his own right. It’s a tough one to read and I won’t really have any comments on that until (Tuesday),” said Walsh.

The individuals are slated to appear in Lac-Mégantic court at 2 p.m. Tuesday afternoon.

Under the Criminal Code, charges of criminal negligence causing death carry a sentence of up to life imprisonment.

Crash investigators have determined that there was a sequence of events that led to the 72-car train roaring into the town of 6,000 people. Among the victims were about 30 people who were winding down their night at the popular Musi-Café bar as well as a number of people who lived along the main strip of Lac-Mégantic.

The train, which was carrying millions of litres of crude oil from the Bakken oilfields of North Dakota toward an Irving oil refinery in New Brunswick, initially caught fire after it had been parked for the night and left unattended on the main tracks in nearby Nantes, Que., about 12 kilometres from Lac-Mégantic.

Crash investigators have determined that the train’s locomotive was shut down after the fire, which led to the train’s air brakes losing pressure and eventually giving out.

The Transportation Safety Board has since urged tougher rules around handbrake application on parked train cars after determining that not enough were applied on that MMA train to stop it from rolling away under its own weight.

The TSB has also determined that the crude oil being transported on the train had been mislabelled and was actually a more combustible form of petrol closer in composition and flammability to gasoline.

“People have been waiting for this,” Yannick Gagné, the owner of the Musi-Café, told the Star Monday night.

“It’s important that someone be found guilty. Are these the right people? We’ll soon find out. They’re very serious charges — 47 people killed, that’s not nothing. It’s a lot.”

Harding has been the elusive face of the tragic train crash since he was first identified in the days following the disaster. He was initially awoken by the sound of the derailment and emerged from his Lac-Mégantic hotel to help first responders trying to get parts of the train far enough away from the inferno that had engulfed the downtown strip.

As the fires were extinguished and the acrid black smoke cleared from over the tourist town near the Quebec border with Maine, even Harding’s own employer started fingering him for the crash.

“It is an incontrovertible fact that he didn’t set adequate hand brakes on his train, although he had plenty of time to do so,” said Ed Burkhardt, the railway’s chairman told the Star last September, repeating an accusation he had made in the hours following the disaster.

Sûreté du Québec investigators, who have been conducting tests and interviews almost since arriving on the scene of the alleged crime, have not responded to claims about how the train’s braking systems were activated, or accusations that Harding fell short of his duties.

Since the outset, though, they have suggested that criminal negligence, rather than some sort of intentional tampering with the train, was the likeliest cause of the deadly train crash.

Delivered dailyThe Morning Headlines Newsletter

The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, One Yonge Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5E 1E6. You can unsubscribe at any time. Please contact us or see our privacy policy for more information.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com